I had a good morning, found lots of things for making Christmas presents at yard sales.

Time to get those Christmas presents started. Ahhhh, my to-do-list is so long.

Pictures & cost break down of my yard sale finds.

I started a thread on the discussion forum yesterday because I have been very curious:

"Does the state you live in directly affect your spending/savings habits?" & "Is your debt to savings ratio directly affected by where you live?"

I have always assumed frugal is frugal no matter where you live you just make your situation work to your advantage, adapt to your environment, and make the most of the resources around you. All of that may be true but some are definitely at a disadvantage because of where they are located in the US.

I found this great site where you can get cost of living by zip code and also compare one zip code to another. I found it to be an eye opener. Here is the link to the site

Last year we got our old wood siding replaced with vinyl siding. In our attic we have ridge vents, gable vents, and soffit vents. The people putting in the siding recommended we cover up the gable vents saying that the siding would go on better and we had plenty of ventilation in our attic anyways.

This summer for the first time we had mildew and the start of mold spores in our attic. I called the vinyl siding contractors that we used last year and left a couple of messages with no return calls. I finally go a return call at the being of this week explaining that they had been up north working on a home and they forgot their cell phone so they were unable to get their messages. I told them that I wanted gable vents because even though they recommended that we did not need them in reality we must because we now have mildew problems. They said they would come out last night and then never showed.

My husband and I last night were contemplating getting in touch with a lawyer. Then surprise, surprise this morning the owner showed up at my home apologized for not coming out last night, had the louvers in his hand for the gable vents and said that he would put them up right now at no cost to me.

We will still have to pay out of pocket someone to treat our attic but at least the gable vents are settled.

I wonder if I should contact my home insurance company about the mold?

As summer draws to a close the yard sales get fewer and farther between. I spent all day going to the same number of yard sales I could have hit in a couple of hours at the beginning of the summer. I know as I get closer to winter all the yard sales will start to dwindle down until there are no more.

I depend on yard sales quite a bit for my children's clothes, my clothes, household accessories and items to sell on ebay (for extra income).

I am like a chipmunk preparing my home for the winter. I need to build-up as much stock (nuts) as I can before it gets cold and they are not more.

Sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don't.....great now I want an Almond Joy!

Yard sale picture: